At last we know the answer to the questions posed by FXCM themselves back in August following settlement of charges brought by the NFA, when they revealed that:
FXCM has set aside a $16 million reserve for the…. anticipated CFTC settlement.
Yet again the CFTC have simultaneously:
More on FXCM Settles CFTC Charges For More Than $14.2 Million
Filed under Regulation by 
Following on from last month's European attack on the City of London a new front has opened up in the war currently being waged to regulate away risk in the world's financial markets. However this time around Britain is fighting back in the courts! Bloomberg reports that:
Filed under Regulation by
Fresh from agreeing a settlement with FXCM's UK subsidiary, the CFTC has stepped up its campaign in the courts against "unregistered" RFEDs by announcing that it is bringing civil actions against another 11 foreign currency firms. As in their first such sweep a number of those firms are based in far away places such as Belize, the British Virgin Islands and Cyprus. However two names stand out in the CFTC's blacklist of miscreants as being more "onshore" than the others, namely:
Filed under Regulation by
My attention has recently been drawn to an academic research paper entitled High Frequency Trading and The New-Market Makers. The author, who is from the VU University in Amsterdam, investigates the connection between high frequency trading and the emergence of new exchanges here in Europe:
More on Are High Frequency Traders About to Destroy the City of London?
Filed under Regulation by
Fresh from having their UK subsidiary fined by the CFTC earlier this month, FXCM have now been fined $2 million by the National Futures Association. Once again the complaint against FXCM and their CEO Drew Niv and details of the agreed settlement have been published simultaneously. Once again FXCM neither admit nor deny the allegations in the complaint, which concern FXCM's failure to pass on positive slippage from their liquidity providers to their customers, and lapses in their anti money laundering procedures. However this time around FXCM's customers do stand to benefit financially since one of the agreed sanctions states that:
Filed under Regulation by
Last October we wondered what steps the CFTC would be able to take to enforce the new forex trading regulations that had just come into force, particularly when it came to pursuing offshore brokers in offshore courts. Back in January they sued a few brokers using the US courts. Now they have used a different approach, which still hasn't required the CFTC to state their case in a foreign jurisdiction. It seems all they need to do is to ask nicely for some money!
Filed under Regulation by
We've previously pondered how the CFTC might go about enforcing the new forex trading regulations that came into force last October, and now we know one of the tactics they are going to employ. Yesterday the CFTC issued a press release announcing that:
Filed under Regulation by
Earlier this week Robert Lande, chief financial officer of US broker FXCM Inc, was interviewed on Bloomberg about the prospects for FXCM following their recent IPO. Robert also talked about the prospects for retail forex in general. Here's that interview:
Filed under Brokers by
Smart Live Markets are proud of their dealing desk and their fixed spreads. In this guest post Paul Hare, their Director of Trading, explains why. (Note that Smart Live Markets are a UK based broker, and are therefore regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Some of the regulatory points Paul makes don't work in quite the same way in other jurisdictions.)
More on Dealing Desk or No Dealing Desk – That is the Question!
Filed under Guest Posts by
I'm not sure this is the sort of publicity GAIN Capital would want, particularly during their long drawn out IPO, but these things are sent to try us. The National Futures Association has just announced that:
Filed under Regulation by
Recent Comments